Getting at the Hard Core.

• Position: Brief article

Hard-core drunken drivers--repeat offenders or those who drive with a blood alcohol content of 0.15 percent or more--killed some 7,600 people in 2009. They account for more than 70 percent of all alcohol-related fatalities, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The safety board recommends states adopt the following 11 policies to eliminate hardcore drunken driving.

1

Conduct frequent statewide sobriety checkpoints; 38 states have done so.

2

Allow sanctions such as license plate impoundment, ignition interlock devices, vehicle immobilization, vehicle impoundment, and vehicle forfeiture; 49 have done so.

3

Develop state and community programs to enforce DWI driver's license suspension and revocation; three have done so.

4

Require offenders to maintain a zero blood alcohol level while driving; five have done so.

5

Impose tougher penalties, assessment and treatment for those arrested with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher; 35 have done so.

6

Provide alternatives to confinement, such as home detention with electronic monitoring; 40 have done so.

7

Prohibit plea bargaining of a drunken driving offense; 27 have done so.

8

Prohibit diversion programs that permit erasing, deferring or...